Offended culture has created a different world
I do not understand the world we live in. It has been that way for several years, but my confusion is getting worse.
Recently a local student was removed from class because, and I kid you not, he made a gun with his fingers. Students were so traumatized by this that the school district filed a report and police investigated. The school district was forced to send a letter home to parents explaining that at no point were students in actual danger…from the finger gun.
Several years ago a Maryland second grader was suspended because he bit his pop tart into the shape of a gun. (He intended to bite it into the shape of a mountain, but it came out looking more like a gun so he went with that.)
We live in culture of offense…as in “I am offended.”
A finger gun is so frightening that students must be protected.
A drawing that depicts a Chinese man from the 1920’s is so offensive it must be painted over.
A professor who uses a gender specific pronoun with a transgendered student is disrespectful, even if the day before that student identified with that pronoun.
A cafeteria that serves sub-par Asian food must be closed down for cultural appropriation.
A state that forces individuals to use the restroom associated with the gender on their birth certificate must be boycotted.
A baker can be forced to bake a cake for a same-sex couple, but a store can refuse to sell a gun to someone on principal.
A man looks at a scantily-clad woman and is placed on probation for violating her because she did not grant him permission.
A white student wearing a sombrero on Cinco de Mayo is threatened because he is appropriating culture that is not his. A white student with dreadlocks is attacked for the same reason.
I do not intend to be culturally insensitive. But apparently I am. I make jokes. I think people are funny. I think individuals are unique and people are different.
I also think the world is a very different place than the one I grew up in.
The biggest difference, I think is that intent has been legislated away. In the past, if I meant no malice, no offense was taken. In today’s world, if someone, anyone, is offended, your speech is labeled as offensive.
A joke between friends or family can easily be taken out of context and interpreted, without consideration of intent, by someone who was not part of the conversation.
The restaurant wanted to serve fried rice, not offend an entire race of people. The professor was trying to talk to a student, not commit an aggression. The drawing was intended to make children smile by the same man who gave us mustached Lorax and cats in hats.
Unfortunately, today it seems like being offended is the best way to get attention and to feel morally superior. We are more enlightened if we oppose guns, or are offended by boys who notice girls, or try to have open and honest discussion about race, gender or religion.
Apparently it is easier to have a zero-tolerance policy about words and actions than a common sense judgment of intent.
-Mac Cordell is a reporter for the Journal-Tribune.